As you are aware, the Legion’s latest campaign concerns compensation arrangements for veterans diagnosed with Mesothelioma, which is a form of asbestos-related cancer. I write today as the Legion’s campaigns team urgently needs your support to help raise the profile of this important issue.

For those unfamiliar with Mesothelioma, it is a particularly aggressive form of cancer that attacks the pleura of the lungs. The disease can take decades to materialise but, once diagnosed, most sufferers will live for only one to two years at most. Tragically, it is not uncommon for some sufferers to have just months to live.

Given the disease’s association with asbestos, Mesothelioma usually affects individuals who have worked in carpentry or construction but it has also afflicted a large number of veterans, particularly naval personnel who worked as engineers in the boiler rooms of ships. Sadly, over 2,500 naval veterans are projected to die from Mesothelioma before 2047.

In 2014, the Government set up a scheme to pay lump sum compensation to civilians who have contracted Mesothelioma and are unable to trace a liable employer or insurance company. The creation of this scheme exposed the fact that, because life expectancy is so short, unmarried or widowed military veterans stand to receive considerably less compensation than their civilian counterparts – as much as £150,000 in some instances. This is because Service personnel and veterans are unable to sue for injuries and illnesses sustained before 1987, meaning that the only avenue of redress open to the vast majority of veterans diagnosed with Mesothelioma is the War Pension Scheme, which cannot award large lump sum payments to veterans diagnosed with ‘long tail’, terminal illnesses.

The Legion is presently calling on the Government to find a fairer way of compensating these veterans. We are clear that current arrangements amount to a clear breach of the Armed Forces Covenant principle of ‘no disadvantage due to Service’, and as such must be addressed at the earliest opportunity. More particularly, we believe that veterans diagnosed with Mesothelioma should be able to choose whether they receive a traditional War Disablement Pension (which can prove generous if the veteran has a surviving spouse to pass their award onto), or a lump sum compensation payment that is that is broadly comparable to those awarded under the Government’s new scheme.

To date, the vast majority of the Legion’s campaigning on this issue has been conducted behind the scenes. We have, however, started to raise the public profile of our campaign over the past couple of weeks, notably achieving front page coverage in the Independent and featuring on BBC radio. We would be grateful if you could aid us in this push by raising awareness of our campaign among local members and volunteers, and by writing to your MP about this issue. Our campaign is currently reaching a critical stage, so any support that you can mobilise would be really helpful.

The easiest way to contact your MP is through the campaign pages of the Legion’s website, where you simply need to enter your name and address details for an automatically generated letter to be sent directly to your MP’s email inbox. You can access this facility by clicking here. 

The Legion is delighted to have the support of Seafarers UK, The Forces Pension Society, The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Charity, The Royal Navy and Royal Marines Widows’ Association, Poppyscotland, Legion Scotland, The Royal Naval Engineers' Benevolent Society, and The Royal Naval Association.  With your support too, we’re confident that we can secure a better deal for veterans diagnosed with Mesothelioma.